Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Final Fantasy is one of those topics, like politics and religion, that defies polite conversation, and I don't think there's ever been a message board thread about the series that hasn't devolved into something kind of cyber-fistfight. I've always found it odd that, even after all these years, it's still one of my favorite series (at least, the mainline ones) and, individually my opinions of the entire line range from "really like" to "damn near love".

The exceptions to this is FF2 but it's easy to forgive that for being so old. Final Fantasy X-2 gets no such quarter, because it seems perversely - intentionally, even - engineered to be the most irritating video game of all time. I generally don't have a problem with the Shibuya youth fashion that's overcome the series as of late, but I DO have a problem when you literally infuse it with J-pop. As much as I've tried to deal with it since it was released, the whole thing is something that just never gelled. Maybe the public has been too warped by decades and decades of Macross, but I don't think that kinda stuff flies outside of Japan. (Maybe I've spoken too soon and we'll see Fallout 4 starring Lady Gaga in another ten years.)

So after seeing the series retrospective on the FFXII Collector's DVD, Pitchfork began replaying the entire series and chronicling it on Socks Make People Sexy.net (the articles for FF1-5 show up in slightly modified format on HG101.) They're long, yes, although unlike, say, Tim Rogers, they actually manage to stay on topic most of the time. Three years after FFXII's release, Pitchfork's almost done, and finally put up his review of Final Fantasy X-2, a game which, every time I'd see him , I'd begged and pleased that he cover. Asking for someone to suffer so harshly for the terrifying results to be chronicled on the internet - is that schadenfreude? You, too, can experience his pain for yourself, and why Final Fantasy X-2 is a strong argument for taking up smoking.

Pitchfork's review/ramblings of Final Fantasy X-2 were right on the money. That was the first and only game that I can remember being like, "wait, am I really having FUN playing this?!?" His other reviews of the Final Fantasies aren't BAD (terribly long winded for their own good), but he definity has an air of pompousness that's extremely off-putting. And his XII review is nothing but burnout-induced dribble.